Flashback: HSUS Raid Sparks Controversy

You may have heard that HSUS is now named in a $5 million federal lawsuit stemming from a "raid" its rescue team took part in last year in South Dakota. Here's our original eye-opening look at the situation.

Apr132010

I think we can judge a lot about HSUS’s animal rescue team from Scotlund Haisley’s Facebook picture. Is this a mission of mercy, or a bunch of adrenaline junkies playing SWAT? I’m not joking: Some HSUS animal rescue team members are even given badges. How is this not a case of impersonating a police officer? (More on that another time.)

It’s hard to believe HSUS gets away with this kind of reckless conduct, but I'm hearing from many, many people who have found themselves on the wrong side of one of these raids. It seems to me that the group is in it for the PR that the raids inevitably generate. They swoop in, raid someone's home, and fly off as fast as they came—often leaving underfunded local rescue groups to clean up their mess.